These were the top Georgia business stories of 2025
For businesses in Georgia, 2025 was marked by constantly changing trade policies, economic uncertainty and a cooling job market.
But despite those headwinds, this year the state and metro Atlanta’s economy showed signs of resilience and growth.
Local forecasters warn 2026 could see an uptick in inflation and slower job creation, but promise Georgia is well-positioned to bounce back in the future.
Many of the year’s top business stories related to changes to federal policies by the new Trump administration, including tariffs, broad crackdowns on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, stepped up immigration enforcement, federal workforce cuts and abrupt reductions in scientific research funding.
Green energy and clean manufacturing, two sectors that boomed in recent years, took a hit when the White House wound down various federal incentives approved under former President Joe Biden.
Stories about data centers and artificial intelligence were frequently among the most-read.
The housing market also appears to have softened with sales prices flat and homes staying on the market longer, while would-be buyers complain they can’t afford to buy.
Still, 2025 included several major wins for Georgia, including major jobs announcements from Duracell, Rivian and Salesforce. Philanthropic groups, meanwhile, came together to buy out a mining company that planned to extract titanium from the sensitive eastern edge of the Okefenokee, taking off the table, at least for now, the threat of mining.
These were the top business stories of 2025:
Tariffs, trade and affordability
The start of Trump’s second term as president brought waves of uncertainty and periods of havoc for business leaders and consumers.
Tariffs threatened to increase costs for many companies, and chaotic rollouts of the import duties over a period of months led to turmoil and disruption. Trump campaigned on lowering prices. But stubbornly high inflation on many items including beef, coffee and some produce has squeezed consumers. High real estate costs and interest rates also kept homeownership out of reach for many.
But some Georgia companies that manufacture domestically saw opportunity to gain a competitive advantage against foreign-made competition with the new tariffs in place.
Layoffs increase, with uneven impact
Major corporations slashed thousands of jobs this year, with artificial intelligence taking at least part of the blame. Amazon announced in October it was laying off about 14,000 corporate workers and Sandy Springs-based Newell Brands said earlier this month it plans to lay off more than 900 global employees. Both companies cited AI as one of the reasons behind the reductions.
Many companies are also facing earnings pressure from a combination of tariffs and trade tension and softer than expected consumer demand. Children’s retailer Carters said tariffs played a role in its announced cuts of jobs and stores.
In November, the U.S. unemployment rate rose to its highest level since 2021, but layoffs have hit African Americans harder. The unemployment rate for white Americans was 3.9% in November, versus 8.3% for African Americans. That rate is more than 2 percentage points higher than the beginning of the year.
In Georgia, the overall unemployment rate was still historically low at 3.4% in September.
Utility bill politics
Customers of Georgia Power, the state’s largest electric utility, had already been feeling the strain from a series rate increases approved by members of its regulator, the Public Service Commission. Across social media, some customers voiced shock and anger as their monthly electricity bills soared to $700 or higher.
Electricity costs became the central issue in a pair of long-delayed races for seats on the PSC. In November, Georgians seemed to take out their frustration at the ballot box, voting overwhelmingly to replace two Republican incumbents with a pair of Democrats. The results sent shock waves that are likely to ripple into 2026, with affordability concerns expected to factor into key statewide races.
Data centers
Metro Atlanta is now the world’s second-largest existing data center market by some estimates, and there are billions of dollars of additional projects in the works.
In 2025, the state’s data center boom began to spill far beyond the confines of metro Atlanta. As the hulking warehouses tried to push into more rural parts of the state, they were met with stiff pushback from residents concerned about the facilities’ land and water demands.
The PSC, meanwhile, weighed Georgia Power’s vision for meeting data centers’ enormous power needs. The utility is planning a historic expansion of its generation fleet, building several new gas burning plants and battery storage systems.
Environmentalists warn that new gas plants will worsen climate change, while consumer advocates fear the build out will saddle residential customers will even higher bills down the road. Georgia Power says data center revenue will benefit other customers and put “downward pressure” on consumers’ bills, but it will take years to see how it all plays out.
Immigration crackdown and the Hyundai raid
President Donald Trump opened the first year of his second term with a stepped-up crackdown on immigration.
But the action that put the sharpest spotlight on Georgia was one at its biggest economic development project.
Federal agents raided a battery factory construction site on Hyundai’s campus near Savannah. The majority of the detained workers were high-skilled Korean engineers temporarily helping with equipment installation and training of American workers.
The operation caught Georgia and Korean officials off-guard, and what started as celebration from Trump turned into damage control, including a reported White House apology to Hyundai’s CEO.
Korean diplomats and Georgia leaders, including Gov. Brian Kemp, said the incident highlights the need to overhaul the visa process for high-skilled workers. But the raid didn’t stop Hyundai from announcing the next phase of its Georgia campus’ expansion plans.
DEI and DBE
One of the Trump administration’s earliest priorities has been eliminating “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs of all recipients of federal dollars, including municipal governments.
For Atlanta, these efforts have struck close to home.
Atlanta was the inspiration behind a little-known but important federal transportation disadvantaged business enterprise contracting program, or DBE, that has led to billions of dollars going to small businesses that may have otherwise never had a bite at the apple. It is also credited as being part of the roots of Atlanta’s reputation as a thriving hub for minority entrepreneurship.
The federal threats to withhold funding to those not complying with the anti-DEI executive orders led to the airport permanently losing access to tens of millions of dollars earlier this year, as the city weighed what to do.
Mayor Andre Dickens told the AJC this fall he was considering adjusting the city’s vaunted minority contracting program to come into compliance. Instead, the city has opted to rename its DEI office as the office of “One Atlanta” and says it intends to keep its minority contracting thresholds in place.
Green energy and EV incentives curtailed
Georgia for years has been one of the beneficiaries of companies making huge investment promises to build EVs, solar panels, batteries and other environmentally friendlier products here.
Trump campaigned on ending or curtailing many of the clean energy and EV incentives passed during the Biden administration and he has so far largely succeeded.
Some U.S. projects have been scaled back, delayed or scuttled.
Hyundai is shifting production at its new Georgia factory to include more hybrid models. Rivian, which has smaller crossover models on the drawing board that would have qualified for a buyer rebate under the former incentives, says it’s moving forward with its Georgia factory where it says those models will be built.
Historic conservation deal
An Alabama company earlier this year seemed closer than ever to obtaining permits to mine next to the swamp, one of the largest, intact wetlands left on Earth. And, another legislative session came and went without lawmakers passing any new protections.
Then in June came stunning news. The mining company had agreed to sell all its land to The Conservation Fund, and the mine was no more. The buyout was cheered as a landmark conservation success, but environmental groups have warned that the specter of mining near the Okefenokee remains.
Commercial real estate
A lot of office space remains available across the region, but the most desirable places continue to see low vacancy rates.
Centennial Yards and South Downtown made major progress in 2025 and Underground Atlanta continued its evolution as a place for nightlife.
Elsewhere, the Medley mixed-use project in Johns Creek broke ground and fits a trend of suburban office complexes being redeveloped. North DeKalb Mall and Atlanta Medical Center also began demolition to make way for their own redevelopments.
Historic centennials
This year, Atlanta celebrated the 100th birthdays of its airport and Delta Air Lines.
Like the railroad industry before it, aviation has been core to Atlanta and Georgia’s growth. While the Atlanta airport wasn’t always the “world’s busiest‚” the city’s political and civic leaders always saw and prioritized the opportunity that its airfield could create. It still does today.
“No other city in the country makes the airport and the relationship with Delta a higher priority,” former Delta CEO Richard Anderson told the AJC.
Aviation safety
In January, the nation endured its first fatal airliner crash in 15 years when an American Airlines regional jet collided with a military helicopter near Washington, D.C.
It sent off a wave of travel anxiety, demands for safety overhauls and a dip in travel bookings.
Two Georgians died in the crash: Lilburn native U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Austin O’Hara, the crew chief of the Black Hawk helicopter, and First Officer Sam Lilley of Richmond Hill, copilot of the American Airlines plane. Lilley’s family has made it their mission since the crash to lead the charge for air traffic control and military procedure reforms.
2025 saw two more significant airplane crashes with Atlanta ties.
A Delta Air Lines regional jet crash landed in Toronto in February, but all passengers survived.
A UPS cargo jet bound for Honolulu crashed near Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport in November, killing its three pilots and 11 people on the ground.
Norfolk Southern sale
The proposed sale of Norfolk Southern to Nebraska-based Union Pacific, would cost Atlanta the Fortune 500 headquarters it fought to recruit just seven years ago and consolidate operations in Omaha.
While the transaction has a long regulatory road ahead, with opposition lining up from certain customers, intermodal ports and some unions, the fate of thousands of Atlanta-based jobs is unclear.
Transitions
Coca-Cola and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta will soon have new chief executives.
Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey will step down early next year. His successor is Henrique Braun, a 30-year veteran of the beverage giant, who will become chief executive on March 31.
Quincey, who is credited with boosting Big Red’s portfolio of billion-dollar brands, will move into the role of executive chairman. Braun has served as chief operating officer and previously held top international leadership positions, including in Latin America, an important market for the company.
Raphael Bostic, president and CEO of the Atlanta Fed, announced earlier this year he intends to retire when his term ends in February.
Bostic, 59, has served in the role since 2017 and is the first Black and openly gay chief executive of a regional Fed bank. An academic and former Fed economist, Bostic directed attention to economic immobility and inequality and pushed business, civic and government leaders to acknowledge diversity not simply as a moral issue but as an economic imperative.
Slutty Vegan’s reboot
In early April, Pinky Cole, the mastermind behind the Slutty Vegan and Bar Vegan chain of restaurants made a shocking revelation: She had lost her business, but reclaimed it through a debt restructuring outside of bankruptcy court.
She founded the vegan chain in 2018 as a food truck, which propelled her to stardom.
Then the company hit troubled waters. But Slutty Vegan still lives on, and Cole has recently announced she wants to expand through franchising.
A glut of soundstages
It wasn’t long ago when every soundstage in Georgia was booked. Now, it’s pretty quiet on many sets.
After more than doubling the amount of available space in the state, soundstage operators began to pivot and find new ways to pay the bills. Some stages were converted back to warehouses and leased to industrial users, pitched as data centers or sold off entirely, among other changes.
The Turner networks
Earlier this year, CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans to split itself into two publicly traded companies. One would house its more profitable streaming and studio businesses, and another would house its beleaguered linear television networks such as CNN, TNT and HGTV.
In October, the company put itself up for sale entirely after receiving interest from potential buyers. WBD backs a bid from Netflix, which does not want the networks. Will those channels live on as planned in the new public company, or could other bidders swoop in for a deal?
About the Authors
J. Scott Trubey is the senior editor over business, climate and environment coverage at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He previously served as a business reporter for the AJC covering banking, real estate and economic development. He joined the AJC in 2010.
Mirtha Donastorg is a reporter on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s business team focusing on Black wealth, entrepreneurship, and minority-owned businesses as well as innovation at Atlanta’s HBCUs.
Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. He's been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people's lives.
As a business reporter, Emma Hurt leads coverage of the Atlanta airport, Delta Air Lines, UPS, Norfolk Southern and other travel and logistics companies. Prior to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she worked as an editor and Atlanta reporter for Axios, a politics reporter for WABE News and a business reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Drew Kann is a reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering climate change and environmental issues. His passion is for stories that capture how humans are responding to a changing environment. He is a proud graduate of the University of Georgia and Northwestern University, and prior to joining the AJC, he held various roles at CNN.
Savannah Sicurella is an entertainment business reporter with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Kristi Swartz is an AJC contributing writer covering climate change and related matters. She writes about how climate change impacts people’s lives, from extreme weather hitting parts of the state more frequently, to higher electricity bills, insurance premiums and health care expenses.
As business team lead, Kelly Yamanouchi edits and writes business stories. She graduated from Harvard and has a master's degree from Northwestern.
